Travelin' Soldier
by ElizaBeGood
Summary: During the Vietnam War, a closeted soldier meets the boy of his dreams who miraculously feels the same about him. Said soldier is sent down range and can only reach the young man through letters. Militarystuck. JohnDave. Loosely based off of the song Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks. M for some smut. This is gonna be sad, just sayin'.


A/n: I decided to try another Songfic guys. This one's gonna be longer, though and it's doesn't follow the song to a t. It's rated M for later chapters (there's probably only going to be three or four.) The song is Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks.

Written by ZaffleBirdie

Disclaimer: Homestuck and its characters are owned by Andrew Hussie

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A young man stands outside a café wearing his army greens. It just so happens that two days ago was his eighteenth birthday. He steps inside the building and chooses a booth. He looks at the menu, not really hungry, but he may as well order something. One of the servers approaches him. The young man is slightly confused about what the server's gender is since they are rather young and the uniforms are unisex. They have a small blue bow in their hair, so he assumes they're a girl. She gives him a small smile, as if to say, "don't be shy, I won't bite."

"Hey, uh, would you mind sitting down for a while, ma'am? I'm feeling a bit alone," he says nervously.

The server grows very red, obviously flustered. "M-ma'am? I'm not a girl!"

The soldier's face just about matches the colour of the boy's. "I'm so sorry, I saw the bow and just thought maybe you were a boyish looking girl. It was an honest mistake."

The boy's face changes from pure embarrassment to understanding. "Oh. Right. My little sister gave it to me a long time ago. I wear it to remember her," his head snaps up as someone in the kitchen clears their throat and gives him a stern look, "but that's not important, what can I get for you?"

"Oh, right, I guess I'll just have a cup of joe. My previous question still stands, though. Would you like to join me?" He runs a hand through his blond hair and glances shyly at him. He had to admit, he was very cute. The soldier had a secret, you see. He wasn't like most other guys. All the other soldiers in his platoon went chasing tail as soon as they were given orders. They all found girlfriends to write to while in stationed in Vietnam. The soldier wasn't interested in that, though, well at least not the girl part of it. He had thought about just choosing some random girl to pretend with, but he couldn't. He wasn't going to lead some girl on. He did want someone special to write to, but girls were out of the question. He thought his waiter was cute, though, and, if he was lucky, vice versa.

"Well, I can't now. I've got customers, but I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go. I'm John Egbert by the way," he says pointing to his name tag absent-mindedly and extending his hand out to the soldier.

"Dave Strider. I can totally wait an hour," he replies, taking John's hand and shaking it firmly. John smiles warmly at him and then proceeds to continue his job, stopping by his table shortly to give him his coffee. Dave doesn't take his eyes off of the young waiter. He quietly laughs to himself an wonders how he thought he was a girl. John is quite tall, taller than him at least, and he's lanky, too. He wears a pair of square rim glasses and his front teeth are rather large, and especially noticeable when he flashes that brilliant smile of his.

An hour passes and John emerges from a room in the back. He's changed into some jeans and a t-shirt, and he walks up to Dave. "You all ready?"

Dave smiles at him and stands up, putting on his aviators and his army cap. "Yep. Where to, Mr. Egbert?"

John groans," I'm sixteen,_ Mr. Strider_. People call my dad 'Mr. Egbert.' It sounds weird if you call me it."

"Hey, that's Private First Class Strider to you!" He laughs and opens the door for John to step through and lead the way. "I'm just pulling your leg, though. Just 'Dave' is fine."

"Okay, Just Dave."

They walk for several minutes, side by side, talking about unimportant things until they reached the pier. They sit down on the edge. John takes off his shoes and dips his feet in the water. Dave does the same, rolling up the pants of his uniform first. The sit in silence and just watch the boats glide along the water until the sun starts to set.

"You said you wear that now to remember you little sis. If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" Dave kicks his feet a bit as he asks the question, choosing to focus his eyes on the water instead of water ever expression John must be making.

John doesn't speak for a few seconds, but then lets out a breath he must have held. "No, I don't mind. I was thirteen. She was four. She was the cutest thing you'd ever see. Always happy and healthy. She seemed like he was made of pure energy, constantly bouncing off the walls. One day she stopped. She got really, _really_ sick. Stage three lung cancer. The rest of her life was spent in a hospital. She was surprisingly cheerful, even at the end. She always smiled and told me it was just for me. She gave me her favorite bow before they put her into surgery. I'll never see her again." His voice broke off and he was sobbing. "I'm so sorry. I-I just met you a few hours ago I'm telling you something I barely even talk about with my parents." His sobs are those awful hiccuping ones that Dave knows are painful. Without thinking, he wraps his arms around John, who even returns the embrace. He strokes his mess of brown hair and quietly shooshes him. When the younger boy's body stops shaking, the older let's go and gives him a small smile, "I'm glad you can open up like that with me."

John's next question catches him off guard, "Have you ever lost someone?"

Dave is hesitant as well, but speaks nonetheless. "As a matter of fact, I have. Just recently, too. My bro was also in the army. I didn't even find out like people say they do. You know, the whole 'high ranking soldier shows up at your front door thing'? Nah, I went to a football game with a couple of my buds. They song the National Anthem and said a prayer, then a man asked if we'd have a moment of silence for some locals who lost their lives in Vietnam. They read out a list. You can imagine my surprise when they called his name. 'Staff Sergeant Ambrose Strider,' they said. A week later I got a letter from one of the other soldiers in his platoon. His name was Dave, too, I think. Good kid. A bit odd. His personality kind of reminds me of a bird. He said he was there when it happened. One of the enemies ran him through with a sword. Years of training and he still didn't stand a chance. I'm the only one left now. That why I enlisted. It was only two days ago. I just turned eighteen. Signed myself up right away." He turns to John and gives him a sad, pathetic excuse of a smile which is returned with just about as much enthusiasm, if not less. "So, ma'am," that comment earns him a mock glare an a punch in the arm, "a pretty girl like yourself probably has a boyfriend, but I don't care. I got no one to send a letter to. Would you mind if I sent one back here to you?"

"I don't know. Would you mind calling me your boyfriend instead of your girlfriend?" He looks serious when he says it, but Dave can't believe it. There's no way. There isn't a single person in their town that would be okay with that. Correction: there probably isn't anyone in the entire country that's okay with it.

"Woah, dude, are you like...you know..."

John's goes red and he looks away. "Oh, um, no. I-I just thought you were so I thought that I'd, um, make a joke so you'd know that it'd be okay if you, um, if you were. I'm not though. I mean I used to have girlfriend. We held hands once. It was awesome and completely heterosexual. Not that there's anything wrong with the opposite, I just-"

"-dude. Stop. You're rambling. I, um, I actually am. I've never told anyone," he lets out a large breath," John Egbert, I'm a homosexual. I am totally and completely gay." He laughs and buries his head in his hands. "I just came out to a cute waiter I just meet a few hours ago," he mumbles. He sounded like he was on the verge of hysteria. He looks up at John, who is grinning like a dork. "What's that look for?"

"You think I'm cute?"

"Yeah, in your own nerdy, Egbertian way. What's it matter to you?"

"Well, I might've lied."

"Hmm?"

"I might've lied about the whole heterosexual thing. I mean, I'm not gay. I've had a girlfriend before and I was definitely attracted to her, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling the same thing with you now."

Dave laughs and grabs John's hand. "So, do I have a boyfriend to write letters to?"

"Absolutely."

When the sun disappears beneath the horizon, they get up and put their shoes on, not even caring that they'd be soaked later. The walk to John's house, hand in hand. They earned a couple of odd stares, but luckily no harassment. When they arrive at John's house, he freezes.

"Hey man, are you alright?" Dave asks. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There are a couple of lights on and there are two cars in the driveway.

"My dad's got his business partners over. Things... Things get kind of ugly when they're around."

"Why don't you stay at my place tonight then. Don't worry, I'm not putting the moves on you or anything, but if you need a safe place then my apartments always available."

John thinks for a few minutes before running up to his house, opening the front door, shouts something, then runs back. "Okay, he knows where I'm gonna be. Let's go."

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A/n: So what do you think, guys? Is it worth continuing? Please leave a review and by all means favorite and/or follow. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Thanks for reading!


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